“Over the last decade, as I’ve grappled with the implications of polycrisis and collapse, American essayist Rebecca Solnit has been a guiding light. In particular, I often return to her words from the 2004 collection Hope in the Dark: “Stories trap us, stories free us, we live and die by stories”, with the consequence that “the change that counts in revolution takes place first in the imagination”.
Close Reading is a dispatch of literary obsessions, published by
@woolgather.co . Each edition features a guest writer who shares one word, one quote, one lyric, one book, and “one other thing”.
The fourth edition is by
@yves_rees . Dr. Rees (they/them) is a Senior Lecturer in History at La Trobe University, co-host of Archive Fever history podcast, and founding editor of
@lantana_journal They are the author of Travelling to Tomorrow: the modern women who sparked Australia’s romance with America (
@newsouthpublishing , 2024) and All About Yves: Notes from a Transition (
@allenandunwin , 2021), as well as co-editor of Nothing to Hide: Voices of Trans and Gender Diverse Australia (Allen & Unwin, 2022) and Transnationalism, Nationalism and Australian History (
@palgrave_macmillan , 2017). Their essays and criticism have been published in the Guardian, The Age,
@sydreviewbooks ,
@australianbookreview ,
@meanjinquarterly_ ,
@griffithreview ,
@crikey.news , and
@overlandlitmag , among other publications. They are also co-editor of the journal History Australia and guest curator of the 2026
@transbookfestival .
In this edition, Yves shares words of resistance, empowerment, and the search for hope and community in times of despair.
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Subscribe free at closereading.co
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Illustration by
@lachconn 
